Process of making shoes.



A. H. PRENZEL.

PROCESS OF MAKING SHOES.

ABPLIGATION FILED FEB.5, 1912.

' Fig.2

i it. assistant, for HALIFAX, rsimsyra ama. assmnon T untrnn anon.

fyivjincliinfi zt'i? COM?AI\IY, or PAT-ERSON, new JERSEY, a columnarionor NEW Loaders.

nection with the accompanying drawings,

is a' specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

Th s invention relates to spring heel snoes and particularly to spring heel shoes of the "underwedgc type, underwedge shoes being so called fromthe tact that the spring heel ls formed by inserting between the sole and the heel seat a filling piece or litt which is usually, though not necessarily, wedg shaped, and then securing said piece or I PTOC permanently in this position' in childrens sizes and the ordinary practice is to make them by the turn shoe process with a single sole. To secure the underwedge in position, when the shoe is made by the turn shoe process, it is necessary to provide the shoe with a heel seat piece and considerable ditficulty has been experienced in this step oi the process. Moreover, difficulty has been experienced in.- so inserting the heel seat piece that the inside of the shoe will be smooth. The ordinary practice has been to sew the upper wrong sideout to the sole about the iorepart and in the shank, the torepart and the shank ot the sole being provided with the usual sewing channel, then to turn the shoe and last in the heel seat piece, and then to insert the lift or under edge between the heel seat and the heel end of the sole and secure it in this position.

By tlu improved process described in my reissued Letters Patent No, 13,447, dated July 23', 1912, a number of the objections to, and the disadvantages of, the usual methods of making spring heel Sllukisof the under- Wedge type have been a vo ded and not only his the manufacture of these nllUL'Q been greatly facilitated. but the quality of the product has also been improved. By the i t retcrred to the heel seat is at the same time that the foreshank of the sole are chantcwed to the uppcr at the'same Specification of Iletters Eatent.

PROCESS 0E MAKING Sl-IQES.

Faten'ted Jan. "2, 1913 Application filed February 5, 1912. Serial No. 675,59

time that the aforementioned parts of the sole sewed to the upper. These operatiors are made practicable by recessing the heel end ofthe sole and so disposing the heel seat in said recess that the upper sur- I 'hereinabove referred to may be still further facilitated, and to the further end that a novel shoe may be produced. having'many features of improvement over shoes hitherto known, Underwedge shoes are usually made only The process of the prior Letters Patent, broadly stated, comprises four characteristic operations, namely, the preparation of the sole and the heel seat for-the formation therein of a continuous'sew'ing channel, the formation of the continuous channel, the stitching operation by which the upper is sewed to the sole all the Way around, and the operation of turning the shoe, separating the heel seat from the sole and inserting the underwedge piece or lift. These four principal operations also characterize the improved process ofthe present invention. It will be observed, however, from the following description, that a further and a.

novel characteristic of the process of the present invention is that the various steps incident. to the pertormance'of the four principal operations are 01"." such anature and are taken in such orderthat each contributes as much as possible to the easy, quick and etlective performance of the later steps, not only of the same principaloperation but also of the succeeding principal operations, and that each contributesas much as possible to the production of a shoe superior both in quality and appearance to shots of the same type hitherto known.

Another important characteristic of the invention, when practised in the preferredmanner, is the novel preparation of the sole for the insertion of the underwedge, Whereby an underweclge or liftwhich 15 so proportioned as to compensate for the arch of invention is to.

the last may be utilized and the tread face of the heel may thus be made substantially level.

Having regard to thepurposes and objects of the invention above set forth and to other'purposes and objectswhich will appear hereinafter, the invention will now be described, with especial reference to its application to the manufacture of underwedg'e shoes by the turn process.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate various steps in the preferred been performed upon the edge of the heel seat piece and for a short distance in front of said piece; Fig. 5 is a broken View, partly in section, showing the sole after the chan' neling operation has been performed; Fig.

- 6 is' a broken view, partly in section, showing the sole after it has been molded; Fig.

7 is a perspective view of the underwedge piece; Fig. 8 is a detail view, partly in section, of the heel end of the shoe showing the shoe after it has been turned and after the underwedge piece has been inserted and nailed in-posit-ion; and Fig. 9 illustrates an alternative mode of permanently securing the underwedge in position by a line .of stitches passing through the heel seat piece, the underwedge and the sole outside the upper.

In practising the improved process in the preferred manner, the sole of the shoe is first provided with a recess at its heel end substantially like that shown in Fig. 1, this recess being provided at its front end with a beveled or inclined wall 2 and having its greatest depth at the lower end of said wall. The thinnest portion of the recessed sole is therefore located at the line of junction 4 of the front wall of the recess with the bottom 6 of the recess and the thickest part of the heel end'of the sole is at the rear end thereof. The sole having been recessed in the.manner shown in Fig. 1, a heel seat piece 8 is selected, of a thickness somewhat greater than the greatest depth of the recess, and this heel seat piece-is provided at its front end with a bevel 10 corresponding to the bevel of the frontswall of the recess. The lower face of the heel seat piece is pro vided with a coating of cement and the heel seat piece is then temporarily secured in the recess in the her: end of the sole by pressing it into engagement with the bottom 6 of said recess. The appearance of the heel end of the sole will then be substantially as shown in Fig. 2. In orderthat the upper surfaces of the heel seat piece and the forepart of the sole may bein substantially flush relation for the succeeding phanneling operation, the sole is now-' subjected to pressure in such manner thatth'e heel end of the sole will be offset with respect to the forepart ofthe sole sufiicient'ly to bring the aforemem tioned surfaces into flush relation. The resultant appearance of the parts will be substantially as shown in Fig. 3. The edge of the heel seat piece 8 is now beveled to furnish a surface against which the upper may be pressed during the stitching operation, the amount of the bevel determining the distance back from the edge of the sole that the upper will be located as a result of the sewing operation. This bevel 12 is preferably extended a short distance in front of the line of junction 14 of the heel seat piece with the forepart of the sole, on each side of the sole. -The extension of thebevel into this region to insure a pro-per union of the sole and upper at the point where the be veling meets the shoulder 16 which is formed about the forepart of the sole during the channeling operation, and to avoid having this union come at the iineof junction itself. After the beveling operation the sole is provided with a continuous channel 18 which extends about the forepart and the heel seat piece and a shoulderl6 is also provided about the forepart, this shoulder extending into the beveled-portion of the sole a short distance upon each side. -The sole is then molded in the manner shown in Fig. Qto emphasize the shoulder and bevel so as to facilitate the stitching operation, after which the upper is sewed to the sole wrong side out. and the heel seat piece is separated from the sole, An underwedge piece 20 is then inserted between the heel end of the sole and the heelseat piece, this underwedge preferably being of the shape shown in Fig. 7,

that is, having its greatest thickness near itsforward .end. The forward end, of the underwedge is beveled to correspond to the bevel at the forward end of the heel seat piece. The object of making the under- The shoe is then turned wedge piece thicker at the front end than at the rear end is that thereby compensation may be made for the arch of thelast and that the resultant spring heel maybe provided with a substantially level t-read face For lasts having different degrees of arching, under-wedges differently proportioned may obviously be used. The uiiderwedge herein shown is preferably made by compressing a lift piece of substantially uniform thickness in such manner that one end will be subjected to greater pressure-than the other end. The underwedge piece hav- Wli (i of a. (ad front wall,

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temporarily 1 per to the Ming said Consists in Sa ient J side, forming a continuous channel in the sole and the heel seat, sewing an upper wrong side out to the sole and to the heel seat, turning the shoe, separating the sole and heel seat and permanently securing a lift between the separated parts.

6. That improvement in the art of making underwedge shoes which consists in forming in the heel end of a sole a recess having an inclined front wall, temporarily securing in said recess in abut-ting relation to said wall a heel seat having a correspondingly inclined or beveled front end, sewing the upper to the sole and to the heel seat, separating said 15- sole and heel seat and permanently securing between said separated parts a lift likewise having its front end beveled or inclined to correspond substantially to the inclination of the front wall of said recess.

7. That improvement in the art of making underwedge shoes which consists in forming in the heel end of a sole a recess having its greatest depth near its front end and having an inclined front Wall, temporarily securing in said recess in abutting relation to said wall a heel seat having a correspondingly inclined or beveled front end, sewing the upper to the sole and to the heel seat, separating said sole and heel seat and permanently securing between said separated parts a lift having its front end beveled or inclined to correspond substantially to the inclination of said front Wall and of a thickness at its front end greater than the thickness of its rear end. I

8. That improvement in the art of making underwedge shoes which consists in recessing the heel end of the sole, temporarily securing a heel seat in said recess, sewing the upper to the sole and to the heel seat, separating said sole and heel seat, and permanently securing between said separated parts a'lift which is thicker at its front end than at its rear end.

9. That improvement in the art of making seat of substantially uniform thickness, sewing the upper to the sole and to the heel seat,

separating said sole and heel seat, and permanently securing between said separated parts a lift thicker at its front end than at.

its rear end.

10. That improvement in the art of making underwedge shoes which consists in recessing the heel end of the sole, temporarily securing a heel seat in said recess, sewing the upper to the sole and to the heel seat, separating said sole and heel seat, and permanently securing between said separated parts a lift of an increased thickness at its front end so proportioned t0 the arch of the last that the resultant spring heel has a substantially level tread surface.

11. That improvement in the art ofmaking' underwedge shoes which consists in recessing the heel end of the sole, temporarily securing the heel seat in said recess, beveling the edge of the heel seat and also the edge of the sole for a short distance in front of the heel seat upon each side, form-' ing a continuous channel in the sole and heel seat and forming a shoulder varound the forepart of the sole so that said shoulder runs into said bevel at-ts two ends, sewing the upper to the sole and to the heel-seat, separating said sole and heel seat and per ma-nently securing a lift between said separated parts.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' ADAM H. PRENZEL. Witnesses:

LEO RYAN,

G. W. SHULTZ. 

